Ubisoft details Ghost Recon Online for Wii U

The first actual game shown for Wii U comes from Ubisoft, and was introduced in detail at a third-party developer roundtable tonight.

Ubisoft showed Ghost Recon Online in action tonight at a roundtable hosted by Nintendo, illustrating how the Wii U tablet controller will work with the game and laying out basic details of how the online service will work.

Using a system that Ubisoft calls Crosscom 2.0, players can use the touchpad as a command centre, mirroring the devices that elite soldiers use on actual battlefields. You can set waypoints visible to your teammates, see enemy positions on a tactical map, or use the gyroscope to control an overhead drone or guide a missile to ground.

Weapon customisation was also shown; you can scroll through parts on the bottom screen whilst seeing a live 3D image of the weapon as you alter it on the television.

“We’ve had to rethink the way we do user interface, redesign the user experience. When we started playing with the controller, we realised it was really fun to drag and drop and throw things between screens,” said Hugues Ricour, senior producer.

A trailer was shown showing four people having rather a lot of staged fun with the game – like all Nintendo trailers, it was experience-led, focussing more on the people playing than on game footage.

The multiplayer was shown as a 1 on 1 demo, with each player using a different console. Ubisoft touted a “persistent online account” which was later confirmed to be game specific – so it’s not a unified account that will work with other games. Also announced was a Ghost Feed social network, another use for the Wii U controller. Even if your TV’s off, or broadcasting, you can track the Ghost Recon Online world and see what your friends are doing on the touchscreen controller.

Ghost Recon Online is being developed by Ubisoft Shanghai. Like and Ghost Recon game, it’s based around team play and slower, more strategic action than most online FPSs. It;s due in 2012, most likely alongside the launch of the Wii U console.